What is a Political Red Herring?
Before we worry about political red herrings, we need to know what is meant by the term “red herring.” I don’t know about you, but I have heard that term used occasionally over the years, but never had it spelled out clearly. To do that, I turned to the dictionary where I found this: red herring noun. 1.A smoked herring having a reddish color. 2.Something that draws attention from the matter or issue at hand. (From its use to distract hunting dogs from the trail.)1 If we look at point two, we find that a red herring is a side issue that is used to distract attention from the main issue. The reference to distracting hunting dogs from the trail is particularly fitting, especially given the topic of this article. Therefore, a political red herring is a political side issue that is given prominence in order to distract attention from more central issues. In this article we will explore three such red herrings that have effectively redirected people’s attention from a much avoided central i
